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User blog:Taldin/2019 NaNoWriMo Ninjas List
As usual, I'm participating in National Novel Writer's Month. There's a healthy NaNo community in Habitica, and one of the things I do is put up a challenge with plot ninjas (things that spark people's creativity when they're stuck in their own novel) that help people get their word count in for the day. There are four types of ninjas: *Ordinary Ninjas -- you can do these on your own, they're voluntary, that sort of thing. *Secret Ninjas -- players in the Challenge send me their way of completing the ninja, and one of them will form the basis for a future ninja challenge. *Level Boss Ninjas -- aka 'show your work' -- you get credit only if you post an excerpt from your novel that completes the ninja challenge. *Ninja Lairs -- aka 'a Mob of Ninjas' -- this will be a list of things that you can finish the To Do as soon as you check off at least one -- but the To Do is worth more if you can do all of them. Note that this requires you to edit the To Do to add a checklist. Day 1: Ordinary Ninja: Pet Me During your writing, preferably on Day 1, give the MC or secondary character a pet. It doesn't have to be present, it could be a memory of a past pet, but give the pet a name, a type, and a mention during your early novel bit. Whose pet is it? Do they like having said pet, or is it perhaps a pet that belongs to someone else? Day 2: Ordinary Ninja: When Your Streets Have No Name Take a few minutes today to name five streets, space station sectors, trails, or even local landmarks ("Oh yeah, the Darby McRae Tavern? I never thought he'd serve wine after all these years...") that will feature in your story. If you've got a really keen street naming scheme that isn't named after trees or presidents or numbers, feel free to share with the group! Day 3: Ordinary Ninja: The Sun Also Sets Don't forget the significance of Daylight Savings Time for those of you who observe it. In the meantime, try and include an observance of either sunrise or sunset in your novel today. For some, it's a moment of peace; for others, a moment of terror as darkness closes in, and for others still, the moment when you realize you've lived through the night. Get your protagonists outside for a Luke Skywalker moment! (Space novels: artificial dawn is a reminder of home.) Day 4: Ordinary Ninja: It's (Not) Hammer Time Stuck on how to solve the current dilemma facing the MC? Have a secondary character show off a heretofore unrealized mechanical (or magical if you're working a fantasy novel) talent that resolves the problem, possibly in an unusual fashion. (aka, 'I didn't know they could do that....') Day 5: Level Boss Ninja: By Any Other Name Pretend for a moment that your POV character is unfamiliar with something you are very familiar with - the more unusual the better. Have them encounter that thing, and try and have them describe that object without naming it. Write at least 50 words of description before they express some sort of emotional reaction towards it, followed by someone else saying something along the lines of 'You've never seen/had/tried that before? Where have you been living?" Share your work in the NaNoWriMo Participant's Guild! Day 6: Ordinary Ninja: DUCK! Stuck? Like, really stuck? Interrupt your scene and MC mid-sentence by having something come crashing down, narrowly missing hitting them in the head. What is it? Was it an accident? Did someone just throw it? Or was it an earthquake? You can get a lot of mileage out of describing what it's like to nearly lose your head, what it was, and wondering where it came from. Maybe it'll even open up a new plot idea. (hat tip to The Truman Show) Day 7: Ordinary Ninja: Secret Orders Hey, we're a week in! It's time to put a plot hook of some sort in that you'll be cashing out in a couple of weeks. Maybe it's some secret orders that someone will have trouble carrying out, maybe it's a request to plan a surprise party, or maybe it's a plot by someone that affects a major character somehow. But if you didn't have a plan before, now's the time to add one. Day 8: Ordinary Ninja: To Infinity And Beyond The main supporting character encounters a roadblock that seems like it's going to go on forever, or until they die, whichever comes first. The MC can't help them with it -- why can't they help? Maybe they can't relate, or maybe it's not something that they have the skills to do. This is the moment where the MC shows off their support skills for someone who's been there for them. Day 9: Ordinary Ninja: Vision Impaired Maybe it's a misplaced pair of glasses, or a sudden onset of fog, or a singer in a smoky room, but your POV character has trouble seeing clearly for roughly 500 words for today's writing for some reason. What is it that's causing the problem, and what has snown up while they didn't see it coming? Day 10: Ordinary Ninja: Government Intervention Something that the protagonists have been doing just fine for the first nine days becomes outlawed due to the situation. Maybe it's a curfew, maybe it's something the group has been buying or selling, but it's now not exactly legal to keep doing it. How does this change their routine? Day 11: Ordinary Ninja: Film At 11 If you're stuck on where to go today, try inventing an appointment that a character suddenly remembers having to do. Maybe it's inconvenient but necessary (dentist?) momentous ("World Series game 7 watch party!") or frivolous ("OMG Matlock is on at 7pm") but a character Important to the Plot (or even the MC) Has to Go Now. Day 12: Ninja Lairs: A Dozen Eggs, a Gallon of Milk... Make a grocery list. Have the MC add things to it over the course of the next several days or chapters, basically laying the groundwork for the Shopping Montage or Souffle-Making Scene later. (Note that these don't have to be actual groceries, a la GotG's 'I need a power pack, the control bracelet, and an artificial leg....') but the idea is that you're making a list of future items to use later. Day 13: Ordinary Ninja: Call it Superstition Something happens where a character is unnerved because they've observed something unlucky. Bonus wordage if it's something unusual enough that nobody else has heard of it, and / or there's a warding ritual involved. Day 14: Ordinary Ninja: Practice, Practice, Practice... It's time for a training montage! It could be a flashback or in the present, but take some time today to show off a heretofore undeclared skill that the MC will need in the coming chapters. What's your skill with a wrench look like? Day 15: Ordinary Ninja: No, Fight Me A confrontation comes to a head in the next few pages, or someone just picks a fight for the heck of it. A third, uninvolved party gets involved somehow -- what do they want in this scrap, and are they better or worse than our combatants? Day 16: Ordinary Ninja: Intervention Maybe it's the authorities, maybe it's someone's parents, or maybe a concerned family member or spouse, but the group's actions are threatened by a party insisting that the party's over and it's time to go home. Of course they have to defy that order.... Day 17: Ninja Lairs Challnge: Thoughtless One of the dreaded traps of writing dialogue is separating people's thoughts from things that they say, but having people respond as if they could read the person's mind. Today's ninja is a list: try to include at least two of these in your novel anytime before the end of the month: *dialogue: 'Read my mind. You'll know.' *thought: 'I'm really glad you can't tell what I'm thinking right now...' *dialogue: 'Let me give you a piece of my mind.' *thought/dialogue: 'Are you a mind reader or something? I was just thinking of you/that.' *dialogue: Great minds think alike.' Day 18: Ordinary Ninja: "How Can You Renounce That?" The MC or main supporting character has a crisis of faith -- and fails. How does this affect them? Does it make them lose support? Does it make them take an action that they regret? Day 19: Ordinary Ninja: Split Second Decision A very important This or That / Left or Right / Cake or Death decision is presented to the MC, and they don't have time to consider the consequences of their choice. Do they pick the choice that works out for them, or creates a major setback for the plot? ("Wait! No!" 'She chose down!' ) Day 20: Sometimes You Have to Dig Deeper Maybe it's an actual shovel you're working with, or maybe it's a search engine query fest, or looking for more subtle clues, but today's writing should be about having to put some additional effort in instead of accepting what's on the surface. (Bonus points if you're using the Traveling Shovel of Death as an actual shovel.... which is what I'm doing.) Day 21: Ordinary Ninja: Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner When was the last time your protagonists stopped to eat? If it's been awhile, have someone complain about being hungry for something specific. If it just happened a chapter or two ago, someone else complains, "Are you hungry again? " And have them talk about a food they didn't have. ("We haven't had second breakfast yet...") Day 22: Ordinary Ninja: Predict the Future... Badly? Someone in the ensemble cast makes a bold prediction about the future (something that will happen within the next seven days of novel writing). Will it be something dire as a fortune, or so ridiculous that they aren't believed? (You're creating a Checkov's Prophecy hook here. Make sure to make it pay off!) Day 23: Ordinary Ninja: Beeeeeach! Has it been a rough month for your protagonists? Have them take a day off in their travails to do something fun! Go to the beach, or for ice cream, or jousting, depending. Show us their fun side! Day 24: Ordinary Ninja: Time Pressure Time's running out for our protagonists; in the next chapter you start, put them in some sort of bind where if they don't complete a task in an aggressive time frame, Bad Things Happen to at least one of them.... (Can Jack Bauer save the world in time?) Day 25: Ordinary Ninja: Ain't That A Kick In the Head? A fight ensues, and the protagonist gets hit with some sort of dirty trick, or the person they're fighting is better than they are. What does it feel like to be on the losing end of a fight, and how do they prevail if they do? Do they fight dirty or get lucky? Does someone else intervene? Day 26: Kitchen Sink Ninja: Alphabet Soup No witty plot devices today, just this: During your writing in the next 24 hours, try and have every letter in the English alphabet appear at least once. It doesn't have to be at the start of a word (bonus points if you can) but this is an exercise in word choice and thinking differently. (You score zero points for having a character say 'The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy sleeping dog.') Day 27: Ordinary Ninja: When in Doubt, Set Something On Fire An oldie but goodie in my years of doing plot ninjas for a month; if you're stuck for something to do to get your plot moving between now and the end of the month, blow something up or set it on fire spontaneously- or even on purpose. Few protagonists can sit still if the building/ship/vehicle they're in catches fire, and it'll take the plot in a different direction if they lose something important -- or are held responsible for said fire. Day 28: Ordinary Ninja: The Tough Old Bird Just when things look like they're under control, someone's elder and better comes into play, and starts trying to take over the situation. Maybe it's a general, or a grandmother, or a gendarme if you're in Paris, but they're out of the loop and probably just made things worse, not better... Day 29: Ordinary Ninja: Objectives in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear Are the heroes overwhelmed? Is the 50K seemingly unattainable? Move the goalposts -closer- for once. Have it turn out that they might have enough fuel after all, or perhaps the energy recharge curve is faster through this part, or the weather clears up enough that sailing is suddenly smoother.... but give the heroes a better fighting chance to actually beat the odds that they didn't have yesterday. Of course, it might be a mirage... Day 30: Future Ninja: Last Licks, Last Looks It's time to land this bird today. Win or lose, but hopefully win -- by the end of the night, write at least 500 words of 'ending' material -- how you'd like the novel to have ended, notes for your future self/MCs to do later, the kiss that never happened, but if you're going to pick this up later, make sure you leave a signpost as to where the exit is. No novel is a lost cause unless you walk away from it, and a signpost of 'this is where we wind up' is a plan for the future.